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The painted ones
History The painted ones were first met when the people of the kingdom pushed towards the east coast during the great expansion of 116. The Angleadd settlers stumbled upon small villages and crude temples dedicated to unknown gods, but few living people were ever spotted. When contact was finally established with a sizeable group of natives, the lords who had laid claims to the land sent heralds with offers of trade and inclusion into the growing kingdom. The reply shocked settlers however when the decapitated bodies of the heralds were discovered impaled on stakes outside their camps one morning. The Angleadd lords responded to the actions of the natives with a great show of force, sacking the closest village and putting it to the torch. They had however miscalculated the numbers of the tribesmen, and as they celebrated their victory over the savages another warparty fell on them. Of the roughly two thousand settlers and warriors who had travelled east, just a couple hundred survived to bring the news back to the capital. King Vaerrac, the ruler at the time, was shocked and enraged by the news of the hostile natives, and for the first time in almost a century he called all his vassals to war. The years that followed was almost as bloody as the throne wars two centuries earlier, with thousands of warriors fighting to more or less eradicate the painted ones and claim vengeance for those killed during the initial contact. By summer of 121 all known villages and towns were razed to ground, and the painted ones were declared vanquished and beaten. Scattered tribes survived however, and in more secluded parts of the kingdom stories are still told of surprise attacks by painted warriors who kidnap and slaughter travellers and villagers. Some lords and their warbands usually strike back and burn some village or another if found, but no decisive victory has of yet been claimed. Culture The painted ones are so called for their habit of covering themselves completely with chalk-white paint and mud, and then adorning their faces and bodies with symbols unknown to the scholars of Angleadd. They usually carry crude weapons made of either bronze, copper or stone, but they are brutally effective with them and can be a threat to even a trained and well-equipped warrior. As far as anyone can tell their culture is built upon the belief that a demon used to rule the land, and to fight his powers they take the heads of fallen enemies and use them as “spirit guards”. The idea behind these guards is that the dead will never let their gaze wander, so only they can be trusted to keep their eyes on the demons. The main problem with this is that according to the elders of their tribes, anyone who are not one of them are in service of the demons and therefore must be killed. The painted ones are extremely superstitious, seeing spirits, demons and greater beings all around them. They hold great faith in the power of magic and spirits, and their tribes is usually ruled by a shaman. The word of the shaman is the law of the tribe, and anyone who objects to his ruling is immediately executed and either sacrificed to one of their gods or chosen to be a spirit guard. Conflicts sometimes arise between the different tribes when their shamans don't agree about something, but such conflicts are usually resolved through the trial of champions. Each shaman chooses one warrior from his tribe to represent him, and these warriors then fight to the death in a neutral spot chosen by both tribes. The belief is that the gods will grant the one who is right victory. After the conclusion of such a battle the losing shaman will be sacrificed, ending with the victor eating the hearts of both the shaman and his fallen champion in order to gain the blessings of the gods. The tribes usually live in secluded villages, hidden away from the lands of the demon-men as they call the Angleaddans. After the initial war they fled their ancestral homelands and settled new villages throughout the wilderness. Their settlements are centered around the temple of guardians, where the heads of their most ferocious foes are displayed both in and around the structure. This is also the home of the ruling shaman and his or her apprentices. The remaining structures are placed in a rough star-pattern spreading out from the temple. Some of the older and larger villages are usually encircled by a wood or stone wall, decorated with heads and symbols of power. With the hostility between the kingdom and the tribes never diminishing, the number of such large villages are believed to be quite low. The buildings and such are usually quite crude, and it is unknown if the tribes have any form of art or crafts apart from the basics they need to survive. Since noone has managed to meet them on peaceful terms, most just assume that they live for nothing but war. Anything from a couple dozen families and up to several hundred individuals can live in a village. The population tends to be quite fluid, as villages will relocate or join up whenever there is need for it. Gender holds little importance for the painted ones, and any member of a tribe can hold any position. The only positive observation that has been made by kingdom scouts is that they value skill and knowledge above anything else, so a strong female warrior holds as much chance to become a warleader as her male counterparts. Likewise there has been several reports about tribes ruled by female shamans. Physical description The average tribesman stands just under 6ft tall, with a rather heavy build and well developed muscles. The females are roughly the same size as their men, and both genders are known to be equally determined and ferocious. Their skin is quite pale, though it is seldom seen due to their custom of bodypainting. Their hair is usually dark, but apart from shamans and other leaders the tribals tend to shave their head completely. Most of them have grey eyes and are known to see better in the dark than their kingdom enemies.